The Online Educator
How To Create A Standards-Driven, Technology-Based
Collaborative Media Program
by Peggy Milam
Media Specialist, Cobb County (Georgia)
School District
We had just remodeled our dark, cramped, and outdated
media center. Workmen had installed new shelving and carpet,
an artist had painted a woodsy mural in the story corner,
and technicians had networked our new computer workstations
when my principal began to complain that students weren't
using the media center enough to warrant the big investment.
At that time, our media center operated on a fixed schedule.
Classes came in every week at their scheduled time, but
students rarely came in on a pass.
The Birth of InfoQuest
After repeated meetings during which the principal
complained that we needed to increase our patronage,
I began to wonder what I could do. I thought, "What
if we asked a weekly research question that tied in
to the curriculum? What if we made researching fun
and exciting? What if we gave little prizes to encourage
regular participation?" BINGO! InfoQuest was born.
In spite of my principal's protests that my idea would
never work, I tried it, and it did work! InfoQuest
worked so well, in fact, that it brought in students,
teachers, parents, and money.
InfoQuest is a game of challenging library research
questions that can be answered using resources from
the school library media center. Each week, a different
question is posed on the school news broadcast and
students have all week to research the answer. Younger
students are given much more assistance, but all ages
are encouraged to participate. By the end of the school
year, students who have been regular participants will
have used nearly every type of print or digital resource
available and will have developed a range of information-literacy
skills.
Why Is Teaching Information-Literacy Skills Important?
The pace of information processing in today's society
moves at a speed that is continuously accelerating.
Mark Nelson, in his article "We Have the Information
You Want, but Getting It Will Cost You" in Crossroads
Magazine [1],noted that "our proficiency at
generating information has exceeded our abilities to
find, review, and understand it." The sheer volume
of data available to us today has transcended the abilities
of most people to locate the very data they need. In
other words, the technology to produce data has surpassed
the development of tools with which to disseminate
it. Nelson adds, "More new information has been produced
in the past 30 years than in the last 5 millennia."
The Information Explosion
Technology has resulted in an astounding increase
in the amount of information available and a corresponding
deficit in the ability to sort and sift through it
to find the exact data needed for a given task. This
phenomenon has been called the information explosion
... and it doesn't just affect the baby boomers. Today's
students are no less susceptible to this overload of
information than are today's workers. They often face
similar problems in retrieving data and behave in much
the same fashion as today's workers. Lynn Akin queried
students about their responses to being overloaded
with information. Her report, "Information Overload
and Children," published in the School Library
Media Quarterly [2], indicated that students
reported headaches, tiredness, depression, frustration,
even feeling panicked when overloaded. Akin also reported
that students were likely to skip over data when too
much was uncovered. Akin concluded, "It is important
for librarians to become aware of information overload
and the ways in which students experience it."
Trends in Student Research
Over the past several years, I have observed some
alarming trends in student research. Even the brightest
students tend to accept the first information they
locate on a topic rather than sorting through all available
sources to locate the best. Moreover, teachers in the
various schools where I have worked seem to support
these "first-results-only" types of searches by limiting
the time students are allotted to conduct a search
and by encouraging fast results as opposed to a more
time-consuming search of all sources, print and nonprint.
As a result, student searches frequently begin and
end with the Internet, when often a print resource
is not only available but more authoritative and even
more comprehensive. What's worse, students seem to
avoid professional help with their searches. John Lubans,
in his article "When Students Surf the Net," published
in the School Library Journal[3], reports
that even though librarians are the ones best suited
to help students be more efficient searchers, "...the
bad news is that most students feel they don't need
a librarian to help them find resources."
Another alarming trend I have observed is what I
call the "re-name it and claim it" process of copying
and pasting information. Students seem to feel that
because information on the Internet is free and available
to all, it is up for grabs. And, many times, they get
away with it simply because it is overly time-consuming
for teachers to check every possible source to confirm
plagiarism. Ken Haycock, in his article "What Works:
Applying Research in Information Literacy," published
in Teacher Librarian [4],noted, "Synthesis,
especially summarizing and making decisions rather
than copying someone else's ideas and conclusions,
must be taught for students in order for them to apply
and use this skill set."
A third trend I have observed is that some students
also tend to accept a quantity of sources as acceptable
evidence of an adequate search, regardless of the quality
of the results. Assuming that quantity indicates thoroughness,
students feel that having a large number of sources,
whether or not all of them are credible and authoritative,
satisfies the need for information. And by failing
to identify acceptable standards for the quantity of
sources accepted, students fail to consider qualifiers
such as currency, authority, validity, and bias. A
recent study by Lori Leibovich at the University of
Michigan [5] found that students using big search engines
get an overwhelming number of hits and then react by
saying something like, "O.K., I found a lot of answers—I'll
take the first couple." Leibovich concludes, "That
is exactly the kind of attitude that makes some educators
worry that students will use the Internet as a quick
fix." In research they conducted for the CSU School
of Library and Information Science, David Loerstcher
and Blanche Woolls [6] concluded, "To date, research
shows we are not making great strides teaching students
or teachers to handle new oceans of information currently
available to most students."
Why Teach Information Literacy Using InfoQuest?
InfoQuest is a program designed to meet the needs
of active learners. It is a process-based program that
easily correlates with local, state, and national curriculum
standards. It introduces students to the thrill of
being an information detective—it is challenging,
motivating, and exciting, even to younger students.
InfoQuest, when properly administered, is a simple
way to teach information-literacy skills to all levels
of students by stimulating interest inspecific subject
areas, helping students distinguish between types of
resources, providing practice in critical-thinking
skills as they evaluate those sources, and assisting
students in documenting their findings. InfoQuest helps
students to become successful and independent researchers
andthereby to be less tempted to plagiarize the research
of another.
How InfoQuest Works
Each week, we ask a challenging research question
during the morning announcements. The questions are
presented "TV-game-show" style to encourage participation.
Once the question is posed, we stock a table with answer
sheets, and the fun begins. Students have all week
to research the answer. Answers must include the source
used and verification that it was researched. Correct
answers are announced the following week along with
the new question. The weekly broadcast dialog, along
with hundreds of suitable questions and answers, answer
sheets, and assessment tools are available in my book, InfoQuest:
A New Twist on Information Literacy [7].
Adapting InfoQuest
to Your Program
InfoQuest is easily individualized to the specific
needs of your program. First, determine the information-literacy
needs and skill levels at your school. Next, assess
your resources (current reference books, nonfiction
books, online resources, computer workstations). Collaborate
with your staff on the major curricular areas to be
covered throughout the year and tie in questions to
those themes. A popular source of questions is the
students themselves, or the principal. One popular
question we used while the fourth grade studied the
regions and states was, "Which state flag is not a
rectangle?," suggested by our principal.
How to Ask HOT Questions
Teachers who consistently ask recall-type questions
that require a simple answer do not motivate students
to develop higher order thinking (HOT) skills. Students
should be encouraged to think, consider, analyze, and
wonder before answering a question. Questions that
require more than one step to answer take students
through a process of evaluating information in order
to reach a conclusion. Questions for InfoQuest need
to be challenging and higher order to encourage critical-thinking
skills.
The most appealing InfoQuest questions have a real-life
application, which means the question is something
students probably have little knowledge of but would
be interested in knowing more about. Such questions
connect to the curriculum and will benefit students
in some way, but may not be in the direct line of study.
For example, while our students studied arachnids in
science, our InfoQuest question was, "What part of
a spider is a protein?" This is intriguing, but not
in their direct line of study, although it was supportive
of the curriculum and encouraged students to dig deeply
into the subject. Carol Ann Tomlinson [8], writing
for Educational Leadership, commented, "Students
learn best when they can make a connection between
the curriculum and their interests and life experiences."
Why InfoQuest Works
The InfoQuest model is based on a philosophy of how
to develop information-literacy skills without focusing
mainly on the product that results. In other words,
it is a process-orientedprogram. Students
are freed from the constraints behind having to perform
and thus can focus their efforts on developing skills.
Instructors are freed from having to evaluate the products
of students' efforts and thus are free to simply direct
and evaluate student progress. The result is that students
enjoy the process and are motivated to
continue with the program, developing the necessary
skills to become information-literate.
What InfoQuest Can Do for You
Once you have begun your InfoQuest program, you may
quickly begin to realize some of the benefits of its
use. First of all, InfoQuest provides an easy way to
collaborate with teachers—even the most reluctant
ones. It is a resource you can brag about on a regular
basis, publishing your results to your Web page or
in your newsletter. Students love to hear their names
on the broadcast, and just announcing their names is
great public relations for your media center. InfoQuest
is a program that brings in attention from home and
local businesses, so it is easy to ask for financial
support to provide resources and to continue operating
it. The first year we administered InfoQuest, our Parent's
Association donated $16,500 to purchase new reference
materials and keep it going! And because InfoQuest
increases your student usage, your circulation, your
students' time on task, and even your use of online
resources, it will be an easy way to demonstrate your
contribution to student achievement.
References
[1] Nelson, M. (2000). "We Have the Information You
Want, But Getting It Will Cost You: Being Held Hostage
by Information Overload." ACM Crossroads Student
Magazine. Retrieved July 31, 2000: http://www.acm.org/crossroads/xrds1-1/mnelson.html.
[2] Akin, L. (1998). "Information Overload and Children:
A Survey of Texas Elementary School Students." School
Library Media Quarterly. Retrieved May 12,
2001: http://www.ala.org/aasl/slmq/overload.html.
[3] Lubans, J. (1999). "When Students
Hit the Surf." School Library Journal.
Retrieved August 25, 2000: http://slj.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA153025&publication=slj.
[4] Haycock, K. (2000). "What Works:
Applying Research in Information Literacy." Teacher
Librarian. Retrieved June 2, 2000: http://www.teacherlibrar
ian.com/pages/whatworks27_3.html.
[5] Leibovich, L. (2000). "Choosing
Quick Hits over the Card Catalog." The New York
Times. Retrieved August 10, 2000: http://www.nytimes.com/
library/tech/00/08/circuits/articles/10thin.html.
[6] Loerstcher, D. & Woolls, B. (1997). "The
Information-Literacy Movement of the School Library
Media Field: A Preliminary Summary of the Research." CSU
School of Library and Information Science. Retrieved
July 26, 2000: http://witloof.sjsu.edu/courses/250.loertscher/modelloer.html.
[7] Milam, P. (2002). InfoQuest: A New Twist
on Information Literacy. Worthington, OH:
Linworth.
[8] Tomlinson, C. (2000). "Reconcilable Differences:
Standards-Based Teaching and Differentiation." Educational
Leadership, 58 (1), 5-11.
Communications to the author should be addressed to
Peggy Milam, Ed.S., Compton Elementary School, 3450 New
Macland Road, Powder Springs, GA 30127; 770/222-3600;
peggy.milam@cobbk12.org.
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